Signing a Free Agent When You're Broke

[davolson]

I'm playing as manager of the Cubs after the end of the 2008 season, and CC Sabathia is a free agent. I offered him a huge contract (what he was asking for). The owner gave me permission to make this offer, for some reason, even though it also said I already had a negative cash balance. (I'm playing with the financial model on, but without the owner controlling the budget so I can spend up to my total revenue. But my total revenue was already negative, even before offering this contract to Sabathia.)

So, let's assume Sabathia accepts the offer. What are my options then? What happens if I have a big negative balance... do I get fired at the end of 2009 or something? Can I just run a big negative budget without consequences? If yes, how long can I do that for? (I'm commissioner too, so I COULD just arbitrarily boost my budget by $30 million, but that seems like just cheating.)

How do I dump payroll this year if Sabathia signs... do I just give away Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly to someone who will take them and their bloated salaries? (I tried shopping them around and no one offered anything for either of them.)

And why did the owner even let me make this offer if I had no money available in my current finances?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Dave

[tysok]

In commissioner mode you can do anything you want. The owner does nothing except set your budget, but you can spend over that and he'll just whine to his wife about it.

If you want to have those limitations you need to make another manager character that isn't the commissioner and play under him (or I guess click the check box to turn off commissioner mode).